Welcome to Part 3 of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn your site into an automated traffic generating machine using the WordPress CMS.
In Part One of this series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to generating automated traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website or blog, all you have to do to automatically begin attracting more web traffic is add web content consistently!)
In Part 2, we discussed the setup phase. We explained the best way to start if you don’t have a website yet, how to set everything up if you already have a site, and what to do if your website was built with WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this article, we look at the configuration stage of the traffic blueprint. We will show you how a WordPress site should be configured in order to automatically drive new traffic simply by regularly adding new content on your website.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration
Finding ways to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by most website owners as their greatest challenge online. Businesses are becoming so much more competitive and are researching any and every advantage they can to improve their results and performance online.
Being able to automatically generate traffic on demand is a huge advantage over other competitors. Having an expertly configured website gives you a flying start and an immediate competitive advantage online.
Configuration Is The Difference
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally set up by an expert website builder but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here is a simple way to describe the differences:
With a WordPress website that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence plus online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence and a built-in automated online business marketing process!)
Not only is additional labor required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, but also a special kind of expertise.
Let me illustrate this point with an amusing little story.
A True Story (Kind Of) …
All was moving along in the widget-making workshop when things ground to a sudden halt.
No one could figure out what was wrong and so the manager decided to call in an expert.
Soon afterwards, the expert arrived and, without saying a word, immediately headed towards the control box. After staring at the wires and circuitry for 2 minutes, the expert then took out a tiny hammer and made a single tap near the right corner of the control unit.
Immediately, everything in the assembly plant returned once again to normal.
The manager was overjoyed as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days after resolving the incident, the manager received a request of payment for services for the amount of $5,000.
The factory manager dialed the expert, demanding to know why they were expected to pay such a ridiculously high fee for so little time spent delivering such minimal amount of work and promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice arrived in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he saw:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is driving visitors to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the widget factory stand to lose when production stopped working and no one in the business had the expertise to fix it? Did the expert in our story not have every right to demand fair compensation for spending years acquiring the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to quickly avert a very serious crisis?
Similarly, if you could have your site set up and configured so all you have to do is publish new content and search engines, social networking sites and dozens of other online properties would be instantly notified, how much time and money would this save you?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your website?)
While many experts often make difficult things look simple, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site requires more than installing a website and configuring some basic settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things like:
- Which plugins you need to install to add various functionalities to your site.
- Which 3rd-party services need to be set up and activated to get specific outcomes
- Which internal and external settings you need to configure to ensure that things will work to plan, etc.
(Generating web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
Although this part of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem so technically difficult, it can be quite involved. This is because it’s not as simple as installing a piece of software, clicking a button … it’s all this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website involves the integration of different parts such as your server, your website or blog, and various external sites …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring a few settings in WordPress)
If we try to flowchart the activities involved in the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplified diagram showing the activities involved in the configuration process)
Let’s take a look at what’s involved in more detail.
Web Hosting
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for site installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about fine-tuning settings in your web server that affect how your site will handle all web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your web hosting account settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is positive traffic. Some of the traffic you can attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This area of the configuration process, therefore, is about evaluating your needs, planning for both good and bad traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This can include looking at things like server-level spam protection and security threat prevention, to configuring your domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like emails, page errors, etc?)
After checking your web server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step of the configuration phase is to set up a number of external sites and services.
External Services
The purpose of setting up external sites is that all of your content will be published to a central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it will syndicate automatically to other parts of your traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once these external sites have been added to your network, content linking back to your website gets automatically fed to these platforms, indexed by search engines and distributed to social sites, even to visitors attracted to the platform itself. Your website will then be exposed to new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some third-party sites and online services will need to have accounts set up before configuring your site’s settings to speed up the process and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, you will want to set up the following accounts before configuring your WordPress site’s settings:
Google Webmasters
(Google Search Console)
Google Webmasters lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides site owners with essential information, tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
Once your account and site details with Google Webmasters are set up, this information can be used with traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s results, SEO, marketing activities, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and social media referrers, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account has been set up, your account information can be easily integrated with WordPress using a simple plugin and automatically sent to many other useful applications and reporting tools.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. After setting up your account and entering site details with Bing, this information can be used with web traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part Two, WordPress offers the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you are planning to build a professional business presence online.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful features, which can be accessed by a number of WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate these features into your traffic generation system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and drive new traffic to your site)
You will need your social media accounts set up before you can integrate these with your traffic generation system.
Once you have set up and configured everything, you will be able to syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and bring new visitors to your site.
Make sure you have accounts and pages set up with all of the popular social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.
There are many social sites you can You can syndicate your content to loads of social bookmarking sites. You don’t need to go crazy, just choose the ones that will work well with your system and/or content sharing tools (we will cover some of these tools in greater detail when we discuss the Automation phase).
(You can syndicate your content to loads of social bookmarking sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are many new online web platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as secondary sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different users.
For example, here is a content aggregator that allows you to add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your page.
There are various sites and platforms that can be incorporated into your web traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these, or to discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up third-party service accounts, it’s time to configure WordPress.
Configuring Your WordPress Site
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to ensure that your global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
Global Settings – WordPress
By default, your WordPress admin area includes a Settings section that allows you to modify your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Settings Menu – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains one of the most powerful and often overlooked built-in traffic notification systems available to WordPress users …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings)
As stated in this section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have purposely chosen to prevent search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically ping the update services entered into the Update Services box
By default, when WordPress is installed, this section includes only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature Of WordPress)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically – just add a list of update services to this section …
(Notify dozens of update services automatically!)
Download A Comprehensive List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site!
Click the link below to download a comprehensive list of reliable and authoritative ping services for your WordPress site or blog:
Download A List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site
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Note: If you need help setting up the list of ping services on your site, we recommend using a professional web services provider. You can find professional WordPress service providers in our WordPress Services Directory.
Reading Settings
This section affects how visitors will see your content when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can have an influence web traffic. For example, your choice of displaying the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content displays to users in RSS feeds and blog post digests, and could affect someone’s choice to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your blog to read the rest of the content from summaries, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
As far as your traffic system is concerned, however, the most important setting here is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is ticked or not.
Typically, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked enables WordPress to automatically ping all the update services you have listed in the Update Services area whenever new posts are published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason to discourage search engines from visiting your site, do not check this box …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion Settings
Although the settings in this section are mostly concerned with how users engage with content on your site, you have the option to allow notifications to sites linked to from your posts, and to allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks). This can work for you, but it can also drive bad traffic in the form of SPAM comments …
(Global Settings – Discussion Settings)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow you to publish posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalinks)
The examples below show some of the ways permalink URLs can be configured …
(Configuring SEO-friendly URLs)
To learn more about setting up WordPress permalinks, go here: Improve Your WordPress SEO With SEO-Friendly URLs
Configuring WordPress Plugin Settings
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that help to add almost every type of functionality to your website, including plugins that add traffic generation capabilities.
Let’s take a brief look at examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help drive more traffic
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for dealing with the effects of both good traffic and bad traffic. Regardless of the kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your website or blog is something you simply cannot afford to ignore.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to bot and hacker attacks.
More information:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your web pages …
(Yoast SEO – WordPress SEO Plugin)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your site’s search engine optimization. When properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines to find and index, it also lets you configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and GooglePlus.
WordPress Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content with others online can help drive significant traffic to your site, especially if your site provides content that adds real value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing buttons to their website using WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social features to their site with free or inexpensive plugins.
Most social plugins allow you to choose which social sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some social share plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content or downloads which visitors can unlock by sharing your page.
Theme Settings
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help grow your site’s traffic.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your site, some themes also give you built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site linking structure for faster indexing, easily add analytics code, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes come with built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of WordPress themes, adding social sharing features to your website is as easy as clicking a couple of buttons to configure your options and enable the feature …
(Many WordPress themes provide users with built-in social sharing features)
WordPress Traffic Automation – Additional Configuration Areas
Last but not least in the configuration process, are the things that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
These include:
Website Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for a growth in traffic, it’s important to plan not only for how to handle good and unwanted traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong as more and more people find and begin to visit your website.
If you do business online, you need to make sure that your website remains compliant with all regulations.
(Does Your Site Comply With The Law?)
If you need help understanding why it’s important to have a compliant website, go here:
Post Categories And Tags
WordPress categories & tags help search engines better organize and index your pages, which helps to increase traffic.
(WordPress categories help search engines index your pages, which helps you get more traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, your site’s tags and categories should be reviewed and set up during the Website Planning Process.
When considering ways to automate and improve web traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the categories and tags you have set up.
Visitor Site Map
A site map that lists all of your pages and posts to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external tools discover more of your website content …
(Site Map – great for site visitors and beneficial for web traffic too!)
Note: An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are different things. Although Google can index your site just from an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
404 Page Not Found – Don’t Forget This!
When visitors searching online for your site type in the wrong URL or click on hyperlinks pointing to an incorrect destination on your site, they will normally be greeted with a 404 error page …
(Default WordPress 404 Page)
Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up in your server, there are WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once you have your site expertly configured and fully set up, all you have to do to automatically attract traffic is add great content regularly.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved and elaborate and requires the configuration and integration of various components and web properties …
(Traffic System – Configuration Checklist)
The kind of skills and knowledge required to perform this stage of the traffic automation process can take some web professionals a long time to learn.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is addressed in the next article in our series.
This is the end of Part 3
To read more, click here:
This article is part of a comprehensive tutorial series aimed at helping small business owners learn how to grow their business online with a WordPress-powered website and proven online marketing strategies.
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now
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